Generally described, computing devices and communication networks can be utilized to exchange information. In a common application, a computing device can request content from another computing device via the communication network. For example, a user at a personal computing device can utilize a software browser application, typically referred to as a browser, to request a Web page from a server computing device via the Internet. In such embodiments, the user computing device can be referred to as a client computing device and the server computing device can be referred to as a content provider. Generally, the user may request, obtain, and interact with a number of requested Web pages or other content simultaneously or in sequence through the software browser application.
With reference to an illustrative example, as part of a term of browsing on a client computing device, a user may request one or more Web pages or other content from a content provider via the Internet or from a local source. In one specific embodiment, each Web page or piece of content may be visually represented as displayed in one or more windows or tabs within the software browser application. Illustratively, the user may interact with the one or more Web pages or other content. For example, the user may enter data in a form on a Web page, or change an attribute of a Web page or piece of content. The user may further open or close tabs or windows in the software browser application, follow links or otherwise request additional Web pages or content, or any number of other activities that may modify the internal state or presentation of the browser, one or more Web pages, or other content during the term of browsing. The displayed content, content state, and browser state at a point in time during the browse session may be referred to as a browsing context.
Generally, exiting a software browser application may end a term of browsing, and may accordingly cause the browsing context associated with the term of browsing to be lost. For example, closing a browser with several open tabs corresponding to Web pages, and subsequently reopening a new instance of a software browser application may cause the new instance to load a default Web page, or to send new requests for the Web pages corresponding to the open tabs of the original browser. Accordingly, any user interactions or changes made to the state of the Web pages displayed in the original browser will not be displayed in the new browser instance. Still further, a user opening a software browser application on a different client computing device may be unable to continue a term of browsing begun on the first client computing device.